I don’t have enough…

Matthew 25:14-30… I’m sure we’ve all either read this passage or heard about it in one form or another; commonly referred to as the Parable of the Talents, there are many things that we can glean and take away from it. Personally, I’ve come across this passage many times and have heard messages preached on it however, a few weeks ago as I was going through a devotional, I came across this passage again and although I read it, I wasn’t expecting to get any new revelation from it; or expecting to learn anything new from it apart from what I’ve already learnt from the passage. However, as usual, God gave me a surprise and new revelations.  

The first of which being the importance of using everything that God has given us. In the case of the servant given the 5 talents, he didn’t wait around with his money but rather, he put his money to work (verse 16). Now, this phrase really got to me- he put his money to work- sooo… that means that money is meant to work for you! We need to put our money to work. This highlighted the importance of investing and having something for yourself. Money is a resource in fact, everything we have is a resource that has been given to us by God. God is expecting us to be faithful stewards who are fruitful and who multiply what has been given to us. That money that God has given to you needs to be used (I’m not saying spent, but used). You need to put it in something that will bring you a return so that you can show it to God and say that with the little you have given to me I have brought this back to you/achieved this. This is a signal that we are ready to handle more, that because we will be productive with the resources He gives us, He can give us more! 

It seems the second servant also had some wisdom in him that following on from the example of the first servant he also put his money (2 talents) to work and he reaped the benefits of doing so- double fold! For both of these servants it was accredited to them as faithfulness (verses 21 and 23). Wouldn’t we love for God to see us as faithful? I know I certainly would. 

Of course, for these good examples, we know there must be something for us to counter them with, and this is given by the example of the servant given only 1 talent. This servant, being afraid of his master, went and hid the talent to his punishment. Whilst we can dwell on this in itself, I believe that it’s important to highlight what we can learn from these passages. 

So, what can we learn? 

• It’s important to use all the resources God has given you. The more of them you use, the more you get in return. Both the first and the second servant used all their talents and gained DOUBLE in return. 
• We need to learn from others! The first two servants can be perceived as being wise to firstly know the kind of master they have and so know that their master values results. Their wise appraisal of their master led to them not making a crucial mistake. The third servant can be viewed as being foolish. Even if he knew his master as a cruel man could he not have learnt from the other two servants? Using common sense, who doesn’t like reaping and gaining the most value for their investment?  
• It’s one thing to invest, and it’s another to save. 

So, what does that mean exactly? The third servant was reprimanded by his master in that he could have saved the master’s money and gained some interest on the saving. The master was said to have gone for a long time (verse 19) so the saving would have had time to accrue interest. This is important in that we usually find many reasons to not put the resources God has given us to full use. We can argue that we simply don’t have enough or that we’re not qualified to use what we have. But the reality of the matter is that these reasons/excuses are simply not good enough to God. God is a creator and as such he expects us to create and be productive, even with the little we have.  

Clearly the master knew his servants and gave them what they could multiply.use. In fact, we can think that the master had higher expectations for the third servant in that he was given less but still expected to produce results. This prompts me to think, what kind of skills did he have/his master know he has for the master to have had so much confidence in him as to go ahead and give him more? In the natural sense, even in the place of work, only the most competent of workers are given harder/more challenging work. Clearly, you wouldn’t give the work of a CEO to a fresh graduate. So him being given the tougher challenge of having less shows that the master really had faith in him. The master was waiting to show off the servant as a mastermind who could create a lot from a little but unfortunately, the servant fumbled. This reminds me of the story of Job in the Bible. God allowed him (Job) to be tempted and stripped of everything because God had deep faith in Job that Job would not deny him and would still rise in such a situation, and Job did. If only this third servant could have done the same. 

There’s nothing that’s too little (and I’m speaking to myself here as well). Do not think that what you have is too little: your blog is not too little, your influence is not too little, you are not too little, your finances are not too little! You have enough and God will bring increase. Put the little yo have to work and reap the benefits. There’s no-one who sows who will not reap (Genesis 8:22). If you don’t sow you cannot expect to reap and consequently cannot blame God. Even in the case of Moses, when it came to doing a miracle, God asked him what he had in his hand and all he had was his rod. Then God told him, stretch out your rod and the rest is history! The widow in 2 Kings 4 sowed the little jar of olive oil she had and reaped enough to start her own business and pay off her debts. So… what’s stopping you! 

Ope O 

While the earth remains, Seedtime and harvest, Cold and heat, Winter and summer, And day and night Shall not cease.
Genesis 8:22 (NKJV) 

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